Bull Ride
by perkat
Summary: Johhny convinces his friends to go out for a night of fun at a new bar with him so he can ride a mechanical bull. Despite everyones objections Johnny insists on riding. Will he prove them wrong or will he regret it.


BULL RIDE

"Good morning partner" Johnny said as he walked into the locker room to change for his shift.

"Good morning Johnny. Did you have a good day off?" Roy asked. "It was good, could have been better if I'd have had a date but I survived."Johnny responded with a laugh. Roy asked"So what did you do with your time then?" "Well, I just puttered around the ranch, finally got the tack room in the barn organized, the loose step to the loft fixed and even had time for a nice horse ride out to the lake for a swim" he replied as he finished getting dressed. Cap popped his head into the room and stated "roll call in 5 gentlemen"

After roll call and duties were assigned Roy and Johnny made their way to the kitchen for a cup of coffee before starting their chores. "Hey guys" Johnny said to Marco, Mike and Chet to his way to the stove. 3 "heys" were received in unison. Johnny finished pouring his coffee and turned and leaned against the counter. "Anybody got plans for this Saturday evening?" he asked. "That new western bar out on Avalon is supposed to have one of those mechanical bulls, and I thought about going out and checking it out. Anyone interested in going with me?" The other 5 men just look wide eyed at Johnny like he had grown a 2nd head. "um you're not thinking about actually trying it out and riding it are you John?" Cap asked.

"Well sure why not, I think it sounds like fun, besides what could go wrong?" he responded.

"What could go wrong Johnny? Are you kidding me? If anyone could hurt on that thing you know it's going to be you!" Roy said as he got up to rinse out his cup. "Now wait a minute Roy, these things are safe or they wouldn't let just anybody get on them." Johnny replied with a look of hurt on his face from what his partner had just said. "Besides I know how to break horses and believe me they can do a good job trying to throw you and I've never been hurt, well not seriously, well maybe a bit seriously at first but but oh just never mind. It can't be that much different. So anyone want to come?" he asked once again. Chet with an evil grin on his face answered" Oh yeah I'll go, I can't wait to see you get thrown off that thing." Johnny shot Chet a glare and then raised his eyebrows at his other coworkers as if asking them again. "I guess I'll see if Jo will let me go, after all you might just need my paramedic skills if you get hurt." Roy quipped as he walked out the door to begin his chores.

"When I get hurt? Now wait a minute, I just told you" his voice trailed off as he followed Roy out into the bay. "Twit, wonder who they're gonna stick with us when he's out on medical."Cap mumbled to himself as he headed to his office.

The day moved along slowly with only a handful of minor calls for the station. Stopping off at Rampart after one such call for supplies Johnny was talking to Dixie about his plans for riding the mechanical bull.

Roy watched the conversation play out not saying anything until Dixie turned to him and asked "Roy, are you going to let your partner get on that thing without a fight to break his neck?" "Not you too Dixie?" Johnny replied exasperatingly "I can't believe nobody trusts me enough to think I can do this without getting hurt." Roy waiting for Johnny's tirade to end finally looked at Dixie and said" I've tried talking him out if it Dix, but he's determined to do it so the only thing I can do is be there to offer medical help when he needs it." He shot Johnny a smile and then grabbed the box of supplies and nodded to Dixie "catch ya later Dix." "Yeah see ya later Dix" Johnny said as he followed Roy towards the squad with a look of dejection on his face.

Saturday evening the A shift crew of station 51 met at the new bar and found a table. "Hey this looks

like a really nice place." Johnny stated. "I think I'm gonna grab me a drink and then see about a turn on the bull." He said as he stood and made his way to the bar. "I can't believe he's really going thru with it" Cap said in disbelief. The others shook their heads in agreement except Roy. "Oh I believe it." He replied. "That's all I've heard about since 2 shifts ago. I just hope he proves us wrong and he doesn't get hurt."

Johnny came bouncing back to the table. "I get my 1st ride in 20 minutes. Oh man this is going to be so much fun!" he exclaimed. His friends just smiled as they rolled their eyes.

15 minutes later found the men standing around the fenced off are to the mechanical bull. Johnny was being given instructions and signing a waver before his ride. Finally it was his turn and he made his way to the bull and climbed on and grabbed onto the makeshift handle and raised his other arm to show he was ready. The "bull" started moving slowly at first and Johnny had to adjust his grip accordingly as the ride started increasing in speed. Johnny's friends were all amazed that Johnny was able to continue to hold on as it sped up. Chet, who was standing just behind the operator working the controls of the bull, was bumped from behind and his beer fell out of his hand landing and spilling all over the controls, shorting them out. This caused the bull to speed up faster than intended and was giving Johnny a ride he wasn't expecting. Unable to hang on any longer, Johnny was thrown off, but since the speed of the bull was faster than normal, it sent Johnny flying farther than expected. He went crashing thru the fence and landed with a thud against the back wall of the bar, but not before taking out a table with a leg, an arm and his head. Roy immediately ran to his downed partner, praying the whole time that his injuries were minor. Roy found Johnny unconscious and with obvious broken bones in his right arm and leg and a bleeding head injury. Roy hollered "someone call for a squad and ambulance!" then turned and saw Marco and asked "can you go get my first aid kit out of the back of my car for me please." "Sure." He replied. Roy turned back to Johnny and continued to access and monitor him. He asked for a waitress for a towel to use to help stop the bleeding from the head wound. 10 minutes later paramedics on B shift from station 51 came through the doors. As they reached Roy they asked him what happened. "The controls to the bull got shorted out and it went crazy and threw Johnny across the room. He's got a definite break in his right arm and leg. I finally got the head wound to stop bleeding, but he's not come to at all." He stated and then updated them with his vitals. After calling in to Rampart and starting the treatments ordered, they had Johnny ready and loaded him into the awaiting ambulance.

Arriving at the ER, Johnny's gurney was met by Dr. Brackett and Dr. Early and taken into treatment room 2. After getting new vitals and ordering x-rays the Dr.'s stepped into the hall to talk to Roy and the rest of Johnny's crew mates. "How is he Doc?" asked Chet. "Well right now we are waiting on x-ray to confirm what I know is obvious, he has a broken right arm and leg. It's what I don't know that has me worried. He still hasn't woke up yet and is unresponsive to voice and pain stimuli. It could just be a bad concussion, but we could be dealing with a skull fracture. Thankfully there are no injured ribs. I'll let you know about his head injury when I get the results." He said wearily as he turned to go back into the treatment room with Johnny.

20 minutes later Dr. Brackett and Dr. Early where looking over the x-rays. "Well Kel, it just looks like a concussion. Looks like our boy lucked out again. Hopefully he'll wake from his beauty rest soon." Dr. Early said with a chuckle. "Yeah, beauty sleep." snorted Dr. Brackett. "Well I'll go let his friends know that we'll be taking him to ortho for casting and then moving him into a room shortly and they can visit him then."

After an hour of waiting, the rest of the gang was lead into Johnny's room. Dixie came in and said "you guys may as well head home; Dr. Brackett gave him some pain medicine that I guarantee will keep him out the rest of the night. Go home, get some rest and come back in the morning, by then Johnny should be awake and ready to visit with you."

Cap said "You heard the lady, let's go!"

The next morning Roy was the first to arrive to see Johnny. He was sitting reading a magazine, an hour into his visit when Johnny began to stir. "Johnny? Hey, you gonna sleep all day?" He asked.

"Roy, what the heck happened man? Oh man, I hurt from my head to my toes."Johnny said thru teeth gritted with pain. "You went for a wild ride my friend." Roy answered. "Someone bumped into Chet and knocked his beer out of his hands and it spilled on the controls and well the "bull" didn't like it and threw you across the room. You have a broken right arm and leg and a concussion."

"Ah man! I can't believe this. I'll never hear the end if this from Chet." Johnny gasped.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it Johnny, until the bull went out of control, you were proving us all wrong. You did one heck of a job riding that thing, besides I think Chet feels a bit guilty that his beer caused the accident, so I don't think you'll get to much grief from Chet." Roy claimed.

"Roy that ride was absolutely fun, well except there at the end, and well I think once I get out of here and am free of these casts, well I have to say I'll probably do it again. Well not the flying across the room part, I can do without that, but yeah, it was fun and I'm gonna go do it again."Johnny said.

Roy looked at his partner in shock. "You are NOT serious are you?" Roy asked. "Sure I'm serious Roy, I'm not gonna let a little accident stop me from doing it again, all though next time I'm going to make sure Chet is nowhere around." He said as the door opened. His other 4 station mates came through the door, all obviously happy to see their young friend awake. Cap, seeing some distress on Roy's face asked "Is there something wrong Roy?" Roy unable to answer immediately just looked back and forth between Johnny and Cap before finally responding "uh Cap, I'm afraid Johnny here has a little bit of brain damage that the doctors missed. I think he hit his head a bit harder than they thought, he said he plans on getting back on the bull when he is better."

Cap stared at Johnny wide eyed. "Johnny being your captain, I'm giving you a direct order. You are Not, I repeat NOT to get back onto the contraption again. Do you understand?"

"Cap, you, you, you can't be serious? If it hadn't been for Chet spilling his beer I would have gotten off the thing without any injuries. You have to admit I was riding that thing better than anybody expected up until then. How can you order me not to get on it again? Come on Cap, really I mean you can't order me not to do something I want to do on my own time." Johnny demanded. "You're right John I can't order that, but I can order you latrine duty for a month if I find out you get back on it and get injured again." Cap stated and then left the room.

2 months later Johnny walked into the locker room for his 2nd shift back after the bull accident.

"Good morning Johnny." Roy said as Johnny stepped over the bench to open his locker. "Morning" Johnny mumbled. Roy looked at his partner with a questioning glance wondering what was going on with him. He noticed an ace bandage on Johnny's wrist and asked "um what happened to your wrist?"

"Oh" he started to say"that, that, that's um nothing, nothing at all Roy, don't worry about it. He stammered. Roy just stared at Johnny and then realization came to him. "You went back to that bar last night and rode that bull again didn't you?" "Yes" was Johnny's mumbled reply "But it's not what you think Roy. It's just a sprain and I got cleared to work."

"So what happened?" Roy asked. "uh I fell off the bull and landed wrong." Johnny replied sheepishly.

Roy's only response as he walked out of the locker room shaking his head."unbeleive-a-BULL"


End file.
